Unilever to Rename Fair & Lovely Skin-Lightening Cream in India
- Firm to continue to sell Fair & Lovely cream by different name
- Brands are responding as BLM movement re-ignites old protests
Women stand at a counter next to a shelf displaying Fair & Lovely beauty products in Mumbai.
Photographer: Kuni Takahashi/Bloomberg
Unilever Plc plans to rename Fair & Lovely, a melanin-suppressing face cream that’s one of its best-sellers in India, as the backlash against branding that trades off racial stereotypes spreads beyond the U.S.
The Anglo-Dutch conglomerate, which derives more than $500 million in annual revenue from the brand in India alone, will also remove the terms “fair,” “whitening” and “lightening” from Fair & Lovely’s packaging and marketing material and feature women of all skin tones in future advertising campaigns. The brand is also sold in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Thailand, Pakistan and elsewhere in Asia. Unilever will continue to produce and market the cream.